"the AC COBRA ... a way of living"I am always looking for COBRA stuff, like pictures, stories, clubs, etc..
If you have any of that, please send an email to:
Luuk de Boer luukb@xs4all.nl
Thanks.

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What's special about a Hi-Tech Cobra
?

Anybody can reproduce the exterior
look of a Cobra. Hi-Tech capture the character of the Cobra; even,
to a large extent, the driving feel. They do this by duplicating
the original parts wherever possible.

When you unlatch a Hi-Tech door, you're
working an authentic Cobra latch. The hinges are authentic and
the door is made the same way as A.C. Cars Ltd. built the originals
- an outer skin attached to a loop frame of steel tubing. So the
door's inertia and stiffness are very close to the original. Enter
the cockpit, pull the door shut, and the feel you get is virtually
identical to that of the original car.

Hi-Tech make the seats in the original
way, a steel-tube frame with a rubber diaphragm supporting a foam
cushion, then covered in leather. It sits like a Cobra seat. The
pedals are exact Cobra duplicates. So is the Moto-Lita steering
wheel, the steering column, throttle linkage and handbrake lever,
so you're connected to Cobra controls.

Even more important, we believe, those
Cobra controls connect to Cobra equipment down under the skin.
It is customary for kit Cobras to use parts from donor cars including
Jaguars, Fords, MGs etc. The
only appropriate donor car for a Hi-Tech Cobra is a real Cobra.
The rear suspension is interchangeable with the original Cobra
and maintains original geometry. At the front, many of the parts
are interchangeable, including the steering rack. A slight geometry
change has the effect of reducing steering effort. The upper and
lower wishbones are so exact they will bolt directly on to an
original car, although the alignment wouldn't be quite right due
to the geometry change. Even the original pin-drive Halibrand
wheels fit exactly so that the track width remains the same.

Only by getting all of these details
right can we give you a chance to experience the feel and fury
of the original.

Hi-Tech's fidelity to the original
brings something else too - a comfortable cockpit. Those who have
tried other replicas, but never an original will marvel at the
Hi-Tech's foot room down around the pedals. You'll be delighted
too by the way you sit down behind the windscreen instead of up
in the wind. We'd like to take some credit, but we can't. It is
just one more detail of the original that has been faithfully
duplicated. Interestingly, if you look at an original - you'll
notice they have fibreglass footboxes attached to an aluminium
bulkhead, you'll also notice that the driver's side has more legroom
than the passenger's. The Hi-Tech is made the same way.

Chasing the Details, Big and Small

Hi-Tech build two types of bodies.
For those who want a tough body but an authentic look when they
lift the bonnet or boot, we offer a fibreglass body with the bulkhead,
boot interior, engine-bay side panels and cockpit floor made of
aluminium. These aren't decorative aluminium panels covering fibreglass,
they are fully functional aluminium panels just as on the original.
The original Cobra however, was not all aluminium; the footboxes,
rear wheel-arch quarter sections and suspension covers inside
the boot were fibreglass - so are the Hi-Tech's.

For the absolute purist...

For the highest level of authenticity,
we offer an aluminium body complete with aluminium bonnet, boot
and doors. The inner panels are as above.

The big difference in feel between
the fibreglass and aluminium cars is in the inertia of the bonnet,
boot and doors when they are opened and closed. If a customer
wants this feel at a lower cost than that of a complete aluminium
car, we can fit aluminium bonnet, boot and doors to a fibreglass
body.

The chassis and support structures
for both the fibreglass and aluminium bodies are identical. Indeed,
a car originally purchased fitted with a fibreglass body could
later be fitted with an aluminium body if the owner so desired.

In those rare cases where a departure
has been made from originality, it has been done to gain more
strength. The main chassis tubes have been upgraded
to seamless cold drawn steel tubing of 0.125" wall thickness
from 0.095" on the original. - Advantage: greater stiffness
for better handling and less body flexing.

Instead
of a Salisbury differential, a Ford 9" housing is narrowed
to the original Cobra dimensions. The dimensions are so authentic,
in fact, that the housing with it's mountings will bolt right
into an original 427 Cobra. Heavy duty Spicer sliding-spline half-shafts,
as on the original, carry power to Hi-Tech's own pin-drive hubs.
- Advantage: greater strength and a wider choice of ratios.

The largest
and best disc brakes that will fit within the original wheels
are used - 12.2" diameter vented discs with Wilwood Superlite
II 4-piston callipers all round. Hi-Tech make their own rotor
hats of 6061-T6 aluminium. - Advantage: excellent braking.

The radiator
will bolt directly into an original Cobra, but has upgraded cooling
capacity from it's more efficient 5-row core. - Advantage: Cooling
good enough for a 427 in Phoenix on a summer day.

We have corrosion protection too.

The corrosion protection exceeds that
of the original Cobra and, we think, that of all other Cobra replicas.
Consider:

The 6061-T6
aluminium "hats" which mount the brake discs to the
hubs are anodized to prevent corrosion.

The fuel
cell is moulded from cross-linked polyethylene so it cannot rust.

The fibreglass body is built to last.

We have a reverence for making our
replicas as near as is possible to the originals. That's why we
do aluminium bodies. However, for most customers, fibreglass is
a better choice, it is more dent resistant, more corrosion resistant
and has no seams in the body to let in water.

Hi-Tech have been making fibreglass
bodies since the early eighties and they've learnt from experience
also, the Arizona climate is perfect for producing high quality
fibreglass. They body is entirely hand laid with three layers
of 2oz. matt backed up by a layer of 6oz. cloth. The exterior
has a gel-coat finish.

The mold duplicates the true Cobra
shape in every detail. It has the slight belly in the rocker panel
that is missed by even the best of the other replicas available.
Seen from the rear, the bottom edge of the body has the slight
low-in-the-middle curve that is also missed by other manufacturers,
and the edge around the cockpit is radiused just right.

The bonnet scoop rivets on, just like
the original 427 S/C. For maximum strength, "steel to steel"
mountings are used on the bonnet, boot and doors. The bonnet and
boot openings are surrounded by steel loop frames bonded to the
underside of the body skin. The bonnet and boot lids have steel
frames too, just like the originals. The hinges and latches mount
to these frames, not to the fibreglass, so there are no screws
or fasteners to pull out of the fibreglass and no local stresses
to cause "spiderweb" surface cracks.

The same idea is used for the doors,
although the details are very different. The cockpit is surrounded
by a steel tube structure that bolts to the chassis. It is there
to stiffen the chassis, provide some measure of occupant protection
and support the windscreen and steering column. It does not touch
the body, but it does provide rigid mounting points for the door
hinges and latches because they are, in effect bolted to the frame.
Therefore, once the doors are properly adjusted, they open and
close precisely, and they stay adjusted because the mounting points
are as solid as the frame.

The body attaches to the frame with
16 bolts - 12 surrounding the cockpit, two more at the front and
two more at the rear. To further stiffen the cowl area, two angled
struts are installed from the chassis, up over the tunnel to the
cowl hoop, just like the original Cobra.

When we build a car to a customer's
specification we work to the highest possible standards of finish,
and when we entrust work to outside contractors for items like
paint and upholstery, we only use the very best, craftsmen of
international acclaim in their respective fields so you can be
sure of quality second to none.

For further details e-mail Paul Blore
or telephone on (44)-0115-945-5452. (in the UK)